Are You Smarter Than a Raccoon?

Currently, for us the answer is a definite: Maybe.

Just last night at dusk, I saw two raccoons walk across our backyard and climb the fence into the neighbors’ yard. This week we saw a family  of five raccoons on the next block. They scooted up a pine and peeked around at us, showing 5 masked faces at different levels and on both sides of the tree. It was adorable! Of course, I rarely walk carrying my camera so you will just have to picture that in your head. Today, as I sat on a low stool pulling wet weeds, some movement caught my attention. I turned and saw a large raccoon walking about seven feet from me.

It is kind of fun and interesting to see them on occasion.

The trouble is, they had gotten a taste for our garbage and they are not tidy  eaters. And bussing their table and surrounding area got a little tiresome.

Driveway evidence:

I will spare you a picture of the spilled garbage.

We carry our own to the landfill and so do not have the giant cans on wheels. We have plastic garbage cans with bag liners. The raccoons had figured out how to get in by grabbing and pulling the liner which once the can was on its side would pop the lid.

First, B tried putting a heavy pot on top. Pot, can, and all came down with the same messy result.

Then, he tried tying a sturdy rope around the can and hooking a bungee cord over the top.  Once it was tipped, they pushed the lid through the bungee.

Now, there are two crossed bungees hooked to the rope and so far….

 

Well, we are keeping our bungees crossed that B has outsmarted the masked bandits.